I am reading through 1491 which is an interesting journalistic history of pre-Columbus North and South America. The book makes mention that the heavily centralised polity of the Azteks required all male citizens under the age of 16 to go through compulsory education.
I cannot say I am surprised that policies like that appear in different cultures. Education has a strong social aspect to it and has constantly been subsidised by the leading polity of the day. Plato's Academy existed on top of legal subsidies (Plato was not a citizen and could not own property so the land of the Academy was leased to him) and political donors. The Greeks were supposed to give liturgies which were similar to the role of the Aediles in Rome where private citizen money would go to public works.
There is only one reference for the Aztek education policy, Miguel Leon-Portilla in a journal published in 1963, so it may need to survive greater archeological and anthropological scrutiny yet.
